Careful when doing FSBO: A Crafty Vancouver realtor: Beware

I thought I would chime in here and post a recent story of a recent friend who listed his property. The realtor tried to “fish” his listing by saying he “had a buyer.” I could not find a direct link but this article refers to this vancouver realtor old website. Be very careful with these types of stories… anyway here is his experience he asked me to post on the site. I hold back nothing but my own opinion.

THIS IN NO WAY REFLECTS THE TRUTH ABOUT THIS AGENT AND I AM IN NO WAY VERIFYING THIS STORY. PLEASE RELY ON IT AT YOUR OWN RISK.

“Selling your own home, just like any other business, has never been without its challenges. While some challenges are unavoidable, there exists others, such as being shifted by a realtor, that are completely unnecessary and their occurrence can leave you having to pay huge commission or worse, stuck in a listing contract with a crappy realtor!

My life in real estate has never been without its fair share of challenges. Noteworthy of these challenges is one that occurred leaving outwitted and cheated. Here is my story:

Having some knowledge about how people have been felt swiped by realtors, I undertook to sell my Vancouver property through sale by owner. As usual with any sale by owner I listed my property and crossed my fingers waiting for that call. In the few days that followed, I wouldn’t leave my telephone behind. Be it the bathroom, the shopping mall, everywhere my phone was my companion. Any incoming call was received with anticipation.

Every time my mobile phone would ring in my pocket, I would quickly pull it out hoping that my aha! moment was about to unfold. My anticipation would be worse if the number happened to be a new contact.

As days moved I could notice feelings of impatience creeping in but somehow an inner voice managed to convince me to hold on. In all battles of impatience versus patience, the latter would always thrash the former.

One day while lying on the couch gazing at the ceiling after watching a epic movie my friend had encouraged me to buy, my phone rang and in anticipation, I quickly picked it and on the other end was a man. The conversation went like this:

Me:Hello, this is Madison. May I know who I am speaking to?
Caller: Hi Mr. Madison, my name is [name hidden] I am a West Vancouver real estate agent from Remax.
My heart skipped for a while by the mention of realtor as I remembered stories I had heard about realtors. I though of hanging up but somehow, my inner voice convinced me to proceed. I decided to trust my inner voice. Thus the conversation went on:
Me: Happy to talk to you [name], so now tell me; how can I help you?
Caller: I have seen your house for sale at 2520 westhill drive, west vancouver, bc, Canada, and I thought of sharing something with you.
Me: Go ahead
Caller: As I said before I am a realtor and part of my work is to ensure that I link you to a buyer who would be willing to acquire the property a good price…
Me: Yes
Caller: So Mr. Madison, I have good news for you.
Me: Sure
Caller: Believe you me, I can happily report that your house has found a prospective buyer who is willing to come and have a view of the home.

The conversation went on for a while after which we settled for a date-which was a week away-which the buyer would come and have a view of the home.

The next one week was like a whole year for me. I couldn’t get much sleep as thoughts of finally selling my home and getting the money preoccupied me day and night. Each night I would dream walking around the home with the buyer answering her questions to her delight and satisfaction.

My long wait was getting to an end and the previous night, I called the realtor to confirm the visit and to my delight, he actually confirmed that together with the prospective buyer, they would visit the home the following day at 2 p.m.

That night I could hardly sleep. The following morning I woke up earlier than usual in an expectant mood. I undertook my chores to around noon time when I started preparing myself for my guests. Two hours later, and my guests had not arrived. I convinced myself that maybe I was too impatient. Half an hour later and no guest in site, impatience started creeping in. I thought of calling but again I did not want to appear too desperate. An hour later a man walked into my compound and my hunch told me that it was Richard.

True to assumption he introduced himself as Richard upon which I wanted to know where the buyer was. He started telling me stories of why the client had not come. From emergency work commitments to family issues, the stories were a kin to a soap opera. I remained quiet though.

Once done with his stories, he assured me that everything would be alright as the buyer had entrusted him to check the house on her behalf and that in fact the transaction was actually a done deal.He asked for information that I noted was the same information I required when self listing and at this point I was adamant that I would not him the required information. After trying much to convince me and seeing that he was not making any progress, our conversation came to an acrimonious end and he left.

While I was lucky that I didn’t get duped, and actually sold my home through sale by owner listing, not many will be. I am sure many complaints abound of people persuade by not only a realtor but by many other realtors spread across Canada, so I wanted to write this quick blurb.

This is a video showing how these realtors are trained to scoup up your hard earned money from the sale of your only property!

This gives you some insight as to how they get trained…

My hope after this ordeal was that one day homeowners would get a platforms LIKE this for sale by owner site for vancouver. to self list their property so that a realtor does not have to enact their repetitive soap opera to be recited over and over again.

The good news is that a platform for sale by owner listing is no longer something to be hoped for. Thanks to this website, and a few other Vancouver sites have allowed us to play in the game. Now one can never be worried of getting a raw deal from engaging the services of realtors.

Now as a real estate dealer, owner or anybody interested in selling any particular kind of real estate can now get their property sold without engaging the services of realtors.So you have property out there? Self list now and enjoy the benefits of your hard toiled investment.

Just to be aware of who this realtor is. I don’t want to tattle tail, but it should be noted. His home search website is here, and he sells and he sells lots of residences with his cheeky tactics. This realtor also likes to pitch to new apartment sellers in the greater vancouver area, probably using the same tactics.

Buyer BEWARE!”

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